Game apparatus.



No. 647,047. Patented Apr. l0, I900.

H. THEOBALD.

GAME APPARATUS.

(Application filed Mar. 15, 1899.)

(No Model.)

"rn'rns HARRY Tl-IEOBALD, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

GAME A'PPARATUS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 647,047, dated April 10, 1900.

Application filed March 15, 1899. Serial No. 709,156. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HARRY THEOBALD, a subject of the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, and a resident of London, England, have invented a certain new and useful Improved Game Apparatus, (for which I have filed ap plications for patents in Great Britain, dated August 20, 1898, No. 17,976; in France, dated Febuary 17, 1899, and in Belgium, dated February 17, 1899,) of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improved game apparatus and is represented on the accompanying drawings, in Figure 1 in plan, and in Fig. 2 in sectional elevation on the line A B, Fig. 1.

The improved apparatus consists of a board (1, characterized by being formed with two grooved tracks I; a, each being of a spiral or analogous convoluted formation having a tangential continuation b or 0, forming the starting-path, at its outer periphery, and a terminating enlargement b 01' 0 forming a goal, at its inner periphery adjacent to its focus of generation, and the two being oppositely or reversely arranged, the one convoluting with a right-handed incurve and the other with a left-handed incurve and the two being arranged in symmetrical disposition in such manner that they intersect or cross each other at various points b c b c b c b c", the series of which are in alinement, Fig. 1, so that in a complete circuit of the two curves they intersect at three points and in two complete circuits at five points, and so on, these intersections of the tracks being the only parts thereof where their courses are common.

The improved board may be made of wood or of metal or of any other suitable material, and the grooved tracks therein may be made either by cutting, molding, or otherwise form'- ing the same in any convenient manner in and below the general surface of the board to a depth just exceeding their semidiameter or by metal strips let into the face of the board.

In a small board having comparativelyshort tracks or courses intersecting at few points the board may be flat and the tracks may be of even depth throughout; but in a large board having longer tracks or courses intersecting at several points the board may with advantage be slightly coned or dished toward the poles or foci of the spirals as a center and the tracks made of even depth throughout, or the board may be flat and the tracks be made each with a gradually-increasing depth evenly declining from its starting point to its goal.

The improved game-board is intended to be used with balls used by two players, each of whom projects a ball along one of the tracks, each of the players using a different track and one of them projecting his ball after the first players ball has passed the first point of intersection b c with the object of intercepting the first-despatched ball at one or other of the remaining intersections b c b c b 0 before it reaches its goal, while the object of the first player is to get his ball to goal without its being struck or intercepted by the ball of the second player. In the use of the board in such a game the balls used should be of equal size and Weight; but balls of different size and unequal weight may be used with the object of causing the larger or heavier ball upon meeting the other at any one of the said intersections common to both tracks to reverse the motion of the latter ball and divert it from its track into the other track.

The tracks may be made of a semicircular or of any suitable shape in cross-section and should be made sufficiently deep to counteract the centrifugal tendency of the projected balls and to cause them to follow the desired course. To insure this action, if the course belong and the balls be required to be sharply projected the outer edges ofthe tracks may be somewhat raised or embanked above the general surface of the board, and on the leading sides of the intersecting parts of the tracks such outer edges may be made tangential to a slight extent, so as the better to direct the ball when emerging from a track toward the rentrance to the continuation of such track.

To readily distinguish the tracks, they may be diiferently colored, anddifierent scoring values may be given to the different intersections of the two tracks and to their respective goals.

The halls may be projected over the starting-paths either by hand or by any suitable ball projecting appliance applied to the versely arranged, the one c'onvoluting with a 15 right-hand incurve and the other with a lefthand incurve, and the two being arranged in symmetrical disposition in such manner that they intersect each other at the various points where their courses are in common, as set zov forth.

Signed at London, England, this 3d day of- March, 1899.

HARRY THEOBALD.

Witnesses:

CHARLES AUBREY DAY, ALFRED CHARLES DAY. 

